Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Progress on the Mystery Quilt from Hell

Here is a picture of the block for my mystery quilt. The reason I call it the Mystery Quilt from Hell is because I have been working on this quilt on and off for 4 years!!! This was also my first (and last) mystery quilt.

As you can see the blocks are pretty detailed and the directions were poorly written. They were broken down in three steps (which each included 3 to 4 substeps to be done). The thing that made it more confusing is that you didn't do all the cutting up front. Each step included cutting and sewing directions, which I didn't realize and ran short on some of the green fabric. Thanks to my friend, Debbie, who hoards fabric she was able to pull something from her stash that matched perfectly!!

The first step was to make 80 flying geese units!! I started this on a retreat and after making all the flying geese was ready to fling it out the window!! Every now and then I would pick it up but each time it was like starting over trying to figure out where I left off and what part was next.

At any rate, I made this one of my UFOs or PIGs to finish for our guild's PIG roast in September. I have now completed all the blocks (12) and all of the pieced sashing units and I am ready to put this monster together. I had been planning to give it away since it had given me so much heartburn but now that the blocks are together I really like it...

I am sticking to at least an hour a day of quilting and doing that got these blocks done. I had been working on them for about 20 minutes and was ready to push them off but stuck with it for the full hour and they were completed.

6 comments:

What a beautiful block...Great dedication in sticking to your one hour plan. I love the fabric combination you chose. I'd like the instructions for just that one block. I'm going to break it down. I'm taking the picture and placing it on my wish list.I can just picture a quilt with just that block alone.

Your mystery block is awesome! I can see where the frustration would come from. Hard enough without bad directions. But the colors are nice, and I can hardly wait to see more of it. So glad you hung in there!! Hugs, Finn

P.s. I just read Mel's comment(screen door) and you know, I think I remember that block as being one in the Civil War Diary Quilt book..in a 6.5" size...yikes!

WOW, so many pieces in that block so no wonder it was hard to see where you might be headed. Probably not the best choice for a mystery as who could have guessed what it was going to look like with all that going on? And even if you did, so what?

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About Me

I have been quilting for so many years. I have a Handiquilter Avante 18. I share my home with my hubby and our kitty Miss Holly. I recently moved to Sparks, Nevada after living in Connecticut for 28 years.